Maeve Kennedy McKean’s Bizarre Disappearance
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Robert F. Kennedy Human RightsMaeve Kennedy McKean at an awards ceremony in 2019
The Kennedy curse continues to affect the family in the present day. In April of 2020, Maeve Kennedy McKean, granddaughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, a remarkable public health official and human rights advocate, disappeared in the Chesapeake Bay with her eight-year-old son Gideon.
McKean’s upbringing and ambitions were decidedly humbler than those of her more famous relatives. She attended public school, worked part-time jobs at fast-food restaurants, and pursued her law degree with a specialization in foreign affairs and conflict resolution.
Robert Sherbow/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty ImagesMaeve Kennedy McKean, née Townsend, seen with her sister Kate and mother Kathleen during Kathleen’s tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland.
She volunteered for the Peace Corps in 2002, serving in Mozambique before returning to help in her mother Kathleen Kennedy’s bid for the Maryland governorship.
The next year, she met David McKean and was in a long relationship with him before they married in 2009. They raised three children together, and she worked for the Department of State to combat AIDS in developing countries.
When the COVID-19 pandemic touched down in the United States, Maeve and David took their children to her mother’s house in Shady Side, Maryland for safety. On April 2, 2020, she and her son stepped into a canoe to retrieve a kickball that had bounced into the bay.
High winds pushed the pair dangerously far into open water, and before long, they were unable to make it back to shore. On April 6, Maeve’s body was found under 25 feet of water just over two miles south of her mother’s house. Gideon’s body was retrieved two days later.
Despite this avalanche of tragedies, remaining family members Edward Kennedy, Jr. and Patrick Kennedy, Jr. have rejected any notion of a Kennedy curse. But whether the curse is real or not, one of America’s most storied families has indeed suffered more than its fair share of pain and loss.
Now that you’ve read all about the tragic Kennedy family curse, discover more Kennedy family secrets that you probably didn’t know. Then, learn about the death of Marilyn Monroe — and why some people believe she was killed by the Kennedys.
